Macedonia Opposition Demands Referendums on Migrants

Macedonia's main opposition party is demanding the right to hold municipal referendums against a supposed plan to settle Middle Eastern refugees in the country on the same day as the October local elections.

Refugees in Macedonia. Archive photo: BIRN

Macedonia’s opposition VMRO DPMNE party is pushing to hold local referendums on the same day in October as the local elections, on a supposed government plan to settle thousands of migrants from the Middle East in various towns.

Bitola, Stip, Radovish, Prilep, Kocani, Negotino, Kavadarci and Gevgelija are just some of the 20 municipalities that have adopted decisions to holding referendums against the alleged plan – which the new Social Democrat-led government says does not exist.

“We demand that the State Electoral Commission, DIK, allow these referendums on October 15 because many citizens have already stood up against the government plan’s to settle refugees,” VMRO DPMNE said in a press statement.

While no one contests the right to hold such local referendums, the party’s insistence on holding them on October 15, the day of the local elections, is seen as problematic.

“Carrying out of these two things in tandem creates a problem. I think it is against the electoral rules because it would upset the [election] procedure,” law professor Osman Kadriu said on Wednesday.

“A referendum is carried out under different rules and procedures from an election. It would be unacceptable for them to take place on the same day,” Kadriu added.

Pro-VMRO DPMNE media have made much of the planned supposed settlement of migrants from the war-torn Middle East in various towns.

After losing power nationally in May, in July the party accused the new government of adopting a new draft strategy for dealing with refugees and migrants which it claimed contained a plan to settle thousands of refugees from the Middle East in Macedonia.